2/15/11
One of my biggest achievements in the business world was learning how to dress professionally....It sounds silly but it really does a lot for a guy's condfidence to look professional. So today, I did a class in my office for the newer sales guys and tought them all how to tie a tie.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Personal With Personell
I'm only as good as my team at work....so...it is time to get rid of the weakest link and make room for another sales rep on my team. It's hard to do because people have families, responsibilities, and the job market is tough. But...it's even tougher to be productive as a team with someone who just isn't meant for this job....Today I made arrangements to let go of a rep and add a rep that has 15 years experience in our industry including 5 years as the trainer for our company....we will see how that works out...he starts Feb 28th.
Sunshine
Day 4 Spend More Time Outside....02/13/2011
I live in Orlando, Florida and I don't have any tan on my skin at all....in fact...I'm pasty white....I don't get outside enough....so for my mental and physical health....I'm going to make a conscious effort to sit outside more often, go on more weekend walks, and find outdoor activities to participate in....Debbie and I went for a walk to the antique row in college park today. It was a beautiful day that culminated with Gelati and Greek food...yummy!
I live in Orlando, Florida and I don't have any tan on my skin at all....in fact...I'm pasty white....I don't get outside enough....so for my mental and physical health....I'm going to make a conscious effort to sit outside more often, go on more weekend walks, and find outdoor activities to participate in....Debbie and I went for a walk to the antique row in college park today. It was a beautiful day that culminated with Gelati and Greek food...yummy!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
A Time To Serve
02/12/2011 Improvement #3
Ahhh...Saturday...A day to sleep in, cook a big breakfast, and be lazy around the house all day....turned out to be wishful thinking. I woke up around 4 am like I do most mornings. I wake up and read the news on my Droid, play a little bit of my world war mmo video game, and then check for interesting posts on Facebook. I was laying in bed around 4:30 in the morning when I noticed a post by a friend of mine named Jonathan. He was in charge of a volunteer team heading out of Summit Church for a community serve day they call NiceServe. He made a post asking if anyone would be free today to grill hot dogs....I figured hey...what else am I going to do today so I sent him a reply. A few hours later my wife Debbie and I were at Summit Church with our volunteer team. Our assignment was to go have a field day with a group of kids from a Methodist Foster Program. My job, specifically, was to grill up some delicious hot dogs. As it turned out I had an absolute blast playing dodgeball, kickball, and dozens of other field games with the kids...the hot dogs weren't ready on time, but there were a lot of happy kids that day....including me. I went home with a recharged spirit and the idea that improvement number 3 would be to volunteer more often. So I did.
Ahhh...Saturday...A day to sleep in, cook a big breakfast, and be lazy around the house all day....turned out to be wishful thinking. I woke up around 4 am like I do most mornings. I wake up and read the news on my Droid, play a little bit of my world war mmo video game, and then check for interesting posts on Facebook. I was laying in bed around 4:30 in the morning when I noticed a post by a friend of mine named Jonathan. He was in charge of a volunteer team heading out of Summit Church for a community serve day they call NiceServe. He made a post asking if anyone would be free today to grill hot dogs....I figured hey...what else am I going to do today so I sent him a reply. A few hours later my wife Debbie and I were at Summit Church with our volunteer team. Our assignment was to go have a field day with a group of kids from a Methodist Foster Program. My job, specifically, was to grill up some delicious hot dogs. As it turned out I had an absolute blast playing dodgeball, kickball, and dozens of other field games with the kids...the hot dogs weren't ready on time, but there were a lot of happy kids that day....including me. I went home with a recharged spirit and the idea that improvement number 3 would be to volunteer more often. So I did.
Day Two: Now What
02/11/2011 Improvement #2
Well, the excitement of doing something new has worn off and now it's time to get down to business. So that is just what I did. It's not the most interesting thing to improve, but important all the same. One of the things that I realized my sales figures would improve from is a more capable sales team. We sell technology products that require a fair amount of training and product knowledge to be proficient at selling. I came up with the idea to have someone on my sales team do a demo of one of our products every Tuesday morning from 8 am to 8:30 am. I would give them a predetermined scenario to work with and their peers would serve as the hypothetical potential clients there in our showroom to look at the equipment. I again emailed out calendar invites, this time one month out to make sure the reps had time to prepare.
Well, the excitement of doing something new has worn off and now it's time to get down to business. So that is just what I did. It's not the most interesting thing to improve, but important all the same. One of the things that I realized my sales figures would improve from is a more capable sales team. We sell technology products that require a fair amount of training and product knowledge to be proficient at selling. I came up with the idea to have someone on my sales team do a demo of one of our products every Tuesday morning from 8 am to 8:30 am. I would give them a predetermined scenario to work with and their peers would serve as the hypothetical potential clients there in our showroom to look at the equipment. I again emailed out calendar invites, this time one month out to make sure the reps had time to prepare.
Day One: Let The Growing Begin
2/10/2011 Improvement #1
When I walked back to my office from Burger King I already had a few ideas about what to improve first. I thought it would be fitting that since our team at work was really just starting to form, and since I needed to make more money with a baby on the way, that I would focus on improving my duties at work first. One of the very important pieces of being a successful manager in the office equipment business is to go out and ride on sales calls with the team. It sounds easier than it is. Think reports, interviews, vendor meetings, trainings, and paperwork. All of those things make it seem near impossible to get out of the office. It is very easy to get in a rut of administrative duties and away from what actually brings in sales. So, for day one I decided to get out of the office. The only way to make sure I do that is to set a schedule of ride alongs 2 weeks in advance on my calendar. I went through my roster of sales reps and sent calendar invites day by day until I had over 2 weeks of ride alongs booked. I also made sure to tell them I want a minimum of 3 appointments set on the days I ride with them. I would track the progress at 30 days and 1 year to see if it helped develop my team, and helped make for money for that baby I have on the way. More on that later.
When I walked back to my office from Burger King I already had a few ideas about what to improve first. I thought it would be fitting that since our team at work was really just starting to form, and since I needed to make more money with a baby on the way, that I would focus on improving my duties at work first. One of the very important pieces of being a successful manager in the office equipment business is to go out and ride on sales calls with the team. It sounds easier than it is. Think reports, interviews, vendor meetings, trainings, and paperwork. All of those things make it seem near impossible to get out of the office. It is very easy to get in a rut of administrative duties and away from what actually brings in sales. So, for day one I decided to get out of the office. The only way to make sure I do that is to set a schedule of ride alongs 2 weeks in advance on my calendar. I went through my roster of sales reps and sent calendar invites day by day until I had over 2 weeks of ride alongs booked. I also made sure to tell them I want a minimum of 3 appointments set on the days I ride with them. I would track the progress at 30 days and 1 year to see if it helped develop my team, and helped make for money for that baby I have on the way. More on that later.
How It All Started
February 10th, 2010. It was a very busy day for me at work. I am the Branch Manager for Copytronics Information Systems in Orlando, Florida. It was a very busy day for me...busier than most that I've had in the last 5 months since taking over in my new position with the office equipment company. Our office is really starting to come together....and the sales numbers with it. I took a late lunch that day and walked next door to Burger King for the number 5 steakhouse xt combo. It was just after 2 pm and I was starving....I ordered my food got my tray and then took a seat away from the few other diners that were there at the moment. As I sat there enjoying the pleasure of a hot juicy burger covered in steak sauce....I started to feel a little overwhelmed. The last 5 months for me had been very rocky....taking over a failing office and turning it around in a short period of time is very stressful. There are a lot of people that wanted to see me fail for their own personal motivations. I found out last week that my wife is pregnant so that added another element of excitement and stress about my future. I sat there at my table feeling alone for the moment. I was able to just decompress and gather my thoughts. Looking down at the napkins on my tray I stared to wonder what I could do to take the next step with my life. I was generally happy, excited about starting a family, happy with my marraige, and feeling like my job was finally coming together. My wife and I belong to a Church that we love and we attend services at weekly. I knew, deep down though, that something was incomplete. There was still more for me to do. That being said, I felt stuck...stuck at my job....losing my energy day by day...gaining weight, losing my youth, and becoming complacent with my life. Staring down at those napkins on my tray I started to have a crazy idea. What if I could take control of my life starting in this very moment....what would I do? The really sad and scary to me was that I had no idea... The idea of being an astronaut or a professional athlete have passed me by. Jack Bauer, James Bond, and Jason Bourne would all be great aspirations, but I told myself...David...you have a baby on the way....So I decided I couldn't be a super secret agent spy rockstar. Back to square one. Then it hit me...what if I just changed one thing? I could just pick one simple thing in my life to improve every day. Things at work, things at home, my personal habits, and goals that I would set. So, I grabbed the 4 napkins in front of me and developed a four step plan to become a better and more purpose driven me. They read:
Step One: Come Up With One Thing To Improve Every Day.
Step Two: Improve One Thing Every Day.
Step Three: Measure The Success Of The Improvement At 30 Days And 1 Year.
Step Four: Get More Napkins.
It takes a lot of napkins to clean up after a steakhouse XT burger. So, I grabbed more napkins, cleaned up, and bounced back over to my office with some measured purpose in my step.
Step One: Come Up With One Thing To Improve Every Day.
Step Two: Improve One Thing Every Day.
Step Three: Measure The Success Of The Improvement At 30 Days And 1 Year.
Step Four: Get More Napkins.
It takes a lot of napkins to clean up after a steakhouse XT burger. So, I grabbed more napkins, cleaned up, and bounced back over to my office with some measured purpose in my step.
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